*** Currently updating the Bissett Database. Contiunally adding new information and new Bissett connections, families and individuals. Some people will show little or no extra event information while others will show much event information. Currently working on 6 or 7 other family databases. Please be patience as I update everything. Info on each person will add and grow extensively with each update ***

On the 24-Jul-1752, Jacques Bissett (Bize as it was originally spelled), his wife, Anne Catherine Metthey, his 14 year old son, and 2 daughters, ages 10 and 7, arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia onboard the "white-sail" ship "Betty", and after a quarantine time period, departed the ship to step on soil in Halifax on 02-Jul-1752.

Jacques Bissett and his family emigrated from their home land which was located in the Principality of Montbeliard, a region of the Department of Doubs, bordering the Swiss, German and French boarder, which at that time was part of the German Duchy of Württemberg.

The Bissett's were French speaking Lutherans, who were recruited by the British government as part of the plans to bring new settlers into Nova Scotia

In April of 1752, Jacques Bissett and his family, joined with the other Montbeliard families and headed for Rotterdam, with few family possessions, to depart for the New World.

During the 1752-1753 winter season in Halifax, which proved extremely difficult for these new emigrants, an epedimic spread throughout the different communities and approximately 1 every 6 immigrants died that first winter. Two of the three children of Jacques Bissett did not make it through that terrible year. On 03-Jan-1753, Lenore Bissett was buried and on the 13-Mar-1753, his remaining daughter, Claudine Bissett was buried.

In early 1772, all the Bissett's left Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and moved to a new settlement managed by military mapmaker Colonel Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres, at Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. DesBarres was awarded 20,000 acres, on August 25, 1765 of land in and around Tatamagouche on the condition that he settles it with 100 within 10 years. Low land prices in other colonies made attracting tenants difficult, but an offer of six years free rent to dissatisfied residents of Lunenburg was a success. Tatamagouche is situated on the Northumberland Strait 50 kilometers north of Truro and 50 kilometers west of Pictou. The village is located along the south side of Tatamagouche Bay at the mouths of the French and Waugh Rivers. Tatamagouche derives its name from the native Mi'kmaq term Takumegooch, roughly translated as 'meeting of the waters.' There are very few records existing of the time the Bissett's lived in Tatamagouche, so little is know of that time period. It was during this time in Tatamagouche that is believed that both Jacques Bissett and his wife Anne Catherine died. It was also the time period that my 3rd Great-Grandfather, James Frederick Bissett was born.

In the early to mid 1780's the Bissett family left Tatamagouche and moved to Cole Harbour, just outside Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Jean George Bissett received license to farm in Cole Harbour in 1781 and eventually received a large land grant in 1786. He died in 1788 and his heirs and descendants spread and grew from there, his sons and daughter soon married and their families spread throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Atlantic Canada, and United States and to other parts of the globe.

It is unknown where many of the original Bissett settlers are buried. It is commonly believed that some may be buried at the "Old Methodist" Cemetery located on the top on "Long Hill" in Cole Harbour. Much of the old cemetery is old and grown over, which over the last 200 years has caused many stones and burial sites to be lost. Also in speaking with the older residents of Cole Harbour is generally accepted that there are two lost burial sites in the general area of the original Bissett homestead located along the harbour side, where the new Cole Harbour Park exists. No one to date has found a possible location for these sites.